Pharmacy Tip Leads to Meth Bust
November 23, 2007
Another Example of why “Behind The Counter” sales of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products works.
Via Kimt.com:
Freeborn County authorities are still seeking a man after a tip from a pharmacist lands two other men in jail. The Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office has Matthew Peterson and Timothy Schmidt in custody. It began with an ephedrine purchase at an Albert Lea store. Authorities ended up chasing Schmidt and a third man through the county’s fairgrounds. Their investigation led them to a camper near Clarks Grove. They found Peterson inside, with meth lab materials and nearly four grams of the illegal drug.
The Freeborn County Sheriff says this kind of help from local pharmacies is helping them battle area meth labs. One pharmacy in Albert Lea says just in their store, they have alerted police to half a dozen suspicious ephedrine sales that have ended in an arrest. Pharmacists say it’s easier to control who’s is getting their hands on the drug, especially since medicines with ephedrine have moved behind the counter.
Since medicines with ephedrine moved behind the counter, pharmacists say they’ve seen some suspicious customers.
“Just when it got moved back here and everybody had to buy it at the pharmacy. We called authorities a couple times and there were some people arrested,” Owner of Curt’s Pharmacy Curt Clarambeau said.
With this last arrest in Freeborn County, pharmacists say there are certain things they look out for when someone buys these drugs.
“Asking for larger quantities. Black fingernails kind of indicates that they are cooking something. Couple people showing up back to back, similar age asking for it.”
Along with keeping a log of who is buying what, pharmacies are alerting their competition. “If somebody’s suspicious, we’ll get calls from other pharmacies and we’ll call all the other pharmacies. Kind of like a calling tree and let everybody know to be looking for somebody and that’s how we have caught people in the past,” Clarambeau said.
Authorities say with the help of local pharmacies instead of coming across a meth lab once a month they now find maybe one or two a year. “We will have information on someone that’s using or possibly manufacturing. So, if we get a call from a pharmacy and they tell us this looks suspicious to us, we try to corroborate what we’re hearing with the pharmacy with other information,” Freeborn County Sheriff Mark Harig said.
Keeping these medicines out of the wrong hands, for Curt’s Pharmacy means keeping track.
“Everybody cooperates pretty good,” Clarambeau said. “We’re all in competition, but we’re also all here to serve Albert Lea.”
Sheriff Harig says with local businesses working together it’s been a couple years since his office has come across a local meth lab. Pharmacists say keeping ephedrine behind the counter has cut back on shoplifting too. Sheriff Harig says in addition to talking to local stores, his office also keeps in touch with nearby counties about who’s buying cold medicine at local drug counters.
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